Our meeting with former Mayor of Santa Monica Denny Zane and the wonderful staff over at Move LA – the team probably as responsible as any for Los Angeles County’s previous $120 Billion transit investment, Measure M – went very well.

It is late on Saturday evening so I’ll put off going into detail until a future post, but so as not to leave you good people in suspense, here is the main finding of RailPAC’s first official meeting with Move LA:

Move LA’s 2020 ballot measure is going to mean more Metrolink – so much more Metrolink.

We’re going to use this opportunity to to turn all 500+ miles into Electrolink – a modern, punctual, frequent electric passenger rail service similar to Europe and Asia’s – dramatically improving passenger experience and eliminating local air pollution.

Much more to come on this and the numerous other exciting passenger rail developments we’ve been covering, once RailPAC President Paul Dyson has returned from his brief trip to Canada and we’ve had an opportunity to go over everything that’s happened in the few days he’s been out of town.

Edited by Noel T. BraymerFeel free to forward copies of this E-Newsletter to your friends or someone who can use this information.
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This is a recent photo early in the morning at Oceanside. The locomotive at the end of this Metrolink Train is one of 40 new EMD locomotives built for Metrolink, many of which had been delivered to Metrolink by last summer. The first of these new locomotives went into service on Metrolink back in October. So far there have been many problems needing troubleshooting with these new locomotives which makes them unreliable so far. As a result Metrolink pairs these new locomotives to a reliable older locomotive to insure their trains don’t get stranded. Slowly but surely Metrolink is getting this new fleet of locomotives up to spec. These new locomotive are central to plans to add more trains and cars into Metrolink’s service in the coming 5 years. Photo by Noel T. Braymer

Wild California police chase ends after driver detours into train tunnel
Fox News-Feb 21, 2018
Driver leads cops on wild chase, vanishes into subway tunnelAuthorities in Southern California were led on a wild pursuit in East Los Angeles on Tuesday that ended when the driver took a surprise detour into a subway tunnel.
The police pursuit began in Huntington Park, located south of downtown Los Angeles, after authorities spotted a pickup truck that had been reported stolen, according to KTLA.
During the chase, captured by television news helicopters, the driver of the pickup truck slammed into a yellow taxi at one point and then kept driving.Later news reports said this driver was wanted on 6 felony charges. NB

NTSB: Truck was on tracks, gates were down before Amtrak crash
Progressive Rail Roading-Feb 22, 2018
A garbage truck involved in a fatal Amtrak accident late last month had entered a grade crossing after the warning gates were lowered, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced yesterday.
On Jan. 31, an Amtrak train struck a garbage truck that was stopped at the crossing in Crozet, Virginia. The train was carrying Republican members of Congress on their way to a legislative retreat in West Virginia.As a result of the crash, one truck passenger died; another truck passenger sustained serious injuries and the truck’s driver sustained minor injuries.

Valley Amtrak Routes On Track To Meet Safety Standards
Valley Public Radio-Feb 20, 2018
The operator of Amtrak service in the Central Valley says they plan to put positive train control in place by the end of this year. This comes a day after the CEO of Amtrak said routes without the safety feature could suspended…
In the Central Valley, the San Joaquin corridor of Amtrak is operated by Caltrans and the San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority.
Matt Rocco, with Caltrans, says they will probably meet the deadline for getting positive train control functioning.“For the San Joaquin lines, most of the equipment has been installed,” Rocco says. “We are very confident that this will be running at the beginning of next year.”

Safety On The Tracks? The Bigger Death Toll Is At Grade Crossings
By Noel T. Braymer
There has been a great deal of media attention on Amtrak and its fatal accidents that have happen in the last few years. These accidents were preventable and should never have happened. But fatal accidents still happen all the time often for no other reason than human error. Passenger train crashes often look terrible and invoke strong emotions with the public. An article in USA Today published on May 13, 2015 gave perspective of the level of dangers to passengers riding on Amtrak. This article pointed out that 158 Amtrak passengers died between 1975 to 2015. That’s an average of roughly 4 passenger deaths a year during this time. Several of these deaths were from passengers falling or jumping off from moving trains. This USA Today article also pointed out that during this time period between 1975 to 2015, Amtrak was involved with a total of 3,744 deaths. Just 4% of these deaths were with passengers. This article published in 2015 pointed out that for 2014 of 119 Amtrak related deaths, 108 were from people trespassing on the tracks.

Take Responsibility For Your Property:’ Astoria Residents Want Amtrak To Repair Cracked Sidewalk
CBS New York-Feb 22, 2018
In New York City, property owners are responsible for repairing and repaving the adjacent sidewalks, and the city gives out violations to owners who don’t.
“This is Amtrak’s property. Take responsibility for it and make sure that you keep our residents safe as you’re passing through our neighborhoods,” City Councilman Costa Constantinides, of Queens, told Bauman.

Amtrak completes repair work on Track 15 at Penn Station
Newsday-Feb 23, 2018
The national railroad, which owns Penn Station and has come under fire over its deteriorated condition, began work at the beginning of January focusing on Track 15 — part of a series of infrastructure renovations at the aging rail hub.
The project included demolishing and replacing a section of concrete.
“We completed the track work within budget, safely, and with minimal amount of disruption to service, as committed,” Amtrak said in a statement, noting the the work was completed three days ahead of schedule.

Amtrak could suspend Vermont service
Vermont Biz-Feb 23, 2018
Anderson spoke at a House of Representatives subcommittee hearing on the slow-paced implementation of positive train control (PTC), a crash-prevention technology which, under federal law, must be installed on some 60,000 miles of the nation’s rail routes by year’s end.
He was addressing safety concerns in the aftermath of several fatal accidents that the Amtrak system has witnessed since December.The routes that Amtrak uses in Vermont, for the Ethan Allen Express and Vermonter trains, are in fact exempt from the federal requirement because they see so little traffic, but Anderson told the subcommittee that “for those instances, where we will not have PTC even after the 12/31 deadline because it’s not required by statute, we have a question about whether we’re going to operate at all, and I doubt we will.”This could be an issue as well on the Southwest Chief over Raton Pass which doesn’t have PTC and has little traffic outside of trains 3&4. It wouldn’t be economical to install PTC on lines with little traffic or chance to run into other trains . NB

Union Pacific, Amtrak nearly finished with Positive Train Control upgrades
Northern Nevada Business Weekly-Feb 23, 2018According to reports from Union Pacific, 99.7 percent of PTC hardware had been installed as of Dec. 31, 2017, on the company’s routes — including through Reno — and on 98 percent of its locomotives.
Those lines are in the testing phase. Other lines are expected to have PTC systems installed before the deadline.

PTC: Ignore the circus. Here’s what’s really going on
Railway Age Feb 16, 2018The railroad industry is making steady progress implementing Positive Train Control. You wouldn’t know it though, if you believed some of the choreographed histrionics the House Subcommittee on Railroads and its chairman displayed at a Feb. 15 hearing on PTC...
“Today, U.S. Rep. Jeff Denham, chairman of the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials for the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, took to task representatives of the railroad industry, including Amtrak, on their failure to implement PTC safety technology that would have prevented crashes and saved lives: ‘If you have a timeline, we want to see that timeline. If you have questions or concerns or impediments, we want to know what those are. If you haven’t received funding, maybe you should request funding. But certainly, ignoring a congressional mandate again won’t be tolerated by either side of the aisle. I think the American public is tired of excuses. This is an amazing technology that will continue to improve the safety of our rails across the country.’”You can stop laughing now.None of the above has even the slightest shred of truth. Some of it is an outright, bald-faced lie. So what’s the purpose of Denham’s pontificating on PTC?

Off the rails: What’s going on with all these deadly train crashes?
Metro US-Feb 23, 2018
“I’m not sure we’re seeing so many accidents and derailments, we’re seeing a couple that are getting a lot of press,” said Allan Zarembski, the director of the Railroad Engineering and Safety Program at the University of Delaware.Referring to statistics released by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) that show a downtick in accidents and fatalities, Zarembski said, “Nothing I’ve seen in the statistics from 2017 show that it was a major aberration in safety.”
And, despite the high-profile accidents, there has been no dip in train travel, with only a 4 percent dip in travelers over the last decade, according to the FRA.

Passenger rail service proposed from New Orleans to Mobile with stops on the Coast
WLOX-Feb 22, 2018
In a letter addressed to Governor Phil Bryant from Coast lawmakers, the plan calls for Amtrak service to be added from New Orleans to Mobile with stops in Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, Biloxi and Pascagoula. This proposal does not offer service to Jacksonville, FL.
Knox Ross with the Southern Rail Commission said the shorter route gives passenger rail service a better chance of becoming a reality sooner.“Much of the track between Mobile and New Orleans already has positive train control, which has been in the news a lot lately and it’s signaled correctly,” said Ross. “It’s in great physical condition and they [CSX] have indicated to us that this would be a much more preferable option for them as well.”

New Amtrak commuter train servicing Ventura, Santa Barbara areas ready to roll in April
KEYT-Feb 22, 2018
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – A long-awaited commuter service involving a precisely timed Amtrak Pacific Surfliner will begin April 2 between Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties.
The demand has been high for traffic relief for years. The recent disasters, which left the area with a transit mess and broken bridges on Highway 192, has resulted in extreme congestion during peak hours.
An estimated 15,000 vehicles are using that route daily for work.
The planned train will have stops in Camarillo, Oxnard, Ventura, Carpinteria, Santa Barbara and Goleta.

Nice price: Metra to buy Amtrak locomotives
RailwayAge Magazine-Feb 23, 2018
Chicago’s commuter rail agency is bargain-hunting as it looks to buy used locomotives to help bolster its motive power fleet.
On Feb. 21 Metra directors authorized negotiations to purchase as many as 21 locomotives at a cost of $1.3 million each that were most recently used by Amtrak in California and other West Coast lines.
Metra is also seeking proposals from manufacturers for new locomotives, for delivery in late 2020.
Metra Chairman Norm Carlson was quoted as saying the price for the power “[I]s wonderful. With a relatively small investment we can reduce operating costs and emissions.”The F59 locomotives deployed by Amtrak were built by General Motors in 1998 and rehabbed in the past five years. They are also 10-25% more fuel efficient than Metra’s older power

A SOLUTION TO REBUILDING THE NORTHEAST CORRIDOR
M.E. Singer
As the status quo will not hold much longer for Amtrak, let alone the Northeast Corridor (NEC), a new paradigm is desperately required. Having no transparency on data and finances provided by Amtrak plays into its “shell game” that prevents a logical paper trail to audit how the long distance routes funding is bled off to cover the widening fiscal hole of the NEC. Concomitantly, how much, if not every dollar paid by the non-NEC states is turned around to support the NEC? For how long has Amtrak manipulated such finances to dump the NEC’s overhead and infrastructure costs into the long distance and state-supported sectors?

How Trump Doomed His Own Infrastructure Plan
Bloomberg View Feb 22, 2018His trillion dollar dream lacked support within the White House and among Republicans…
A president focused on infrastructure should probably stack his administration with policy experts capable of translating his grand vision into a governing program that gets approved and funded by Congress. Instead, he mostly brought in conservative Republicans who aren’t exactly known for putting together large infrastructure plans. So I’m not surprised they have produced something that my View colleague Barry Ritholtz called a “deeply inadequate” and “fanciful” plan that would “give private investors a gift at the expense of the taxpaying public.”All politicians need to bring government spending to their districts to get reelected. Elected politicians won’t give up spending to their district without a fight. NB

Geotechnical studies underway in South Bay for high speed rail
KGO-TV-Feb 19, 2018
In Silicon Valley, work is now starting on geotechnical analysis of proposed track alignments in Santa Clara County and in the City of San Jose.
A crew on President’s Day was busy drilling for core samples along busy Monterey Road, just south of Senter Road. The samples will help planners to understand soil conditions before proceeding with advanced engineering and environmental work.

High speed rail construction Tuesday in Wasco
Kern Golden Empire-Feb 19, 2018
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – Work on the California’s High Speed Rail is coming to Kern County Tuesday.
Construction work will cause some closures in Wasco.
The High Speed Rail Authority says eastbound shoulders on Pond Road will close between Magnolia and Palm avenues on Tuesday.

High Speed Rail project prompts road closures in Downtown Fresno
KFSN-TV-Feb 23, 2018
The California High-Speed Rail Authority announced the closure of H Street between the Stanislaus Street bridge and Divisadero Street for utility relocation.
Work is scheduled to start next Monday, February 26th and will last approximately two months.

Hanford meeting to detail latest high-speed rail work
The Business Journal-Feb 21, 2018
The meeting, which is set for March 6 from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. at the Hanford Fraternal Hall, will also include design, right of way information and discussion of small business and employment opportunities.
Construction Package 2-3 (CP 2-3) is the second design-build construction contract executed on the high-speed rail program. CP 2-3 is the 65-mile segment between East American Avenue in Fresno County to one mile north of the Tulare-Kern County line. It will include approximately 36 grade separations in the counties of Fresno, Tulare and Kings, including viaducts, underpasses and overpasses.

The ‘train deniers’ are wrong. We Californians love riding the rails.
The Desert Sun-Feb 23, 2018If California’s train deniers are right — that no one ever rides trains here, that Californians prefer to drive or fly, and that high-speed rail is a boondoggle that won’t attract riders — then how do you explain my wife’s public humiliation?..
The Pacific Surfliner that day was mobbed, with every seat taken and passengers standing in the aisles and stairwells. So when I took those two hungry boys in the direction of the café car, the crowds were so thick I couldn’t squeeze through. The boys, now nine and seven, are very skinny and insisted on continuing on, despite my pleas, beginning a memorable adventure.

Thursday letters: High-speed rail
Houston Chronicle-Feb 21, 2018Fear of unknown
Regarding “Progress vs. preservation” (Page A1, Sunday), it’s not surprising that farmers, townspeople and local leaders between Houston and Dallas are opposed to the Texas Central bullet train. This in spite of the fact that the high speed line will be elevated along most of its right-of-way and the trains will travel in virtual silence as opposed to the existing freight lines that cross many of their properties at grade and produce noise at any hour of the day. The claim that it will interfere with their way of life simply reflects the trait all of us have in common – fear of the unknown.When I lived in Germany, the construction of high speed rail – which now offers the preferred means of transportation for many travelers throughout Europe – was in its infancy. Farmers and rural townspeople were suspicious of what effects it might have on them.
But now, years later, they have come to realize that high-speed rail has had no effect on their lives. They and their livestock are totally unaffected by the trains that glide through their pastures and near their towns.

China saves on oil with switch to high-speed rail
Nikkei Asian Review-Feb 19, 2018
The trains are not only transforming Chinese economy and travel but are also starting to chip away at oil use in the world’s second largest consumer and biggest source of fuel demand growth. The impact is being felt primarily on jet fuel and gasoline consumption. The trains, running at roughly 200-350 km/hour, provide an economical and often more reliable alternative to air travel.State-owned oil giant China National Petroleum Corporation recently cited HSR among a host of changes including electric cars and the sharing economy as factors crimping Chinese gasoline demand growth.

Faster than flying: the high-speed rail routes taking on the air industry
Railway Technology-Feb 18, 2018
But while air transport dominates the long-haul travelling market, on shorter distances, more and more passengers seem to be inclined to opt for the train instead.Bloomberg analysis has recently shown that, on key routes in Asia and Europe, high-speed railways (HSR) and air travel are neck and neck.
The reasons are quite easy to grasp. Firstly, when taking into consideration what flying entails – travelling from home to the airport, time spent in check-in and security, as well as additional transport and baggage pickup– taking the train offers big overall travel time savings.

Jerusalem-Tel Aviv high-speed rail opening to be delayed six months
The Jerusalem Post-Feb 21, 2018
The rail line – which has been under construction for years – would halve the arduous, traffic-congested route to a speedy 28 minutes between the two cities.“Not all the regulatory approvals required for the operation of the line for commercial use of passengers…have yet to be received,” Israel Railways said in its filing to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange on Wednesday morning. “Such operation is expected to be postponed by six months, subject to the receipt of all such approvals.”

BNSF SoCal yard project headed to state Supreme Court
RailwayAge Magazine-Feb 20, 2018
The SCIG will create a railhead for container traffic in Wilmington just four miles from the Port of Los Angeles, rather than boxes having to be drayed 24 miles on local roads and the 710 freeway to downtown rail facilities. BNSF has said SCIG will allow 1.5 million more containers to move by more efficient and environmentally preferred rail through the Alameda Corridor each year, reducing truck traffic congestion in Southern California, while also creating jobs.
But the city of Long Beach, air pollution regulators, environmentalists and neighbors objected, contending in 2013 lawsuits that the 185-acre yard would actually make air quality worse. They want further work done on the environmental reports needed for approval, which the city of Los Angeles granted in 2013.

This is a view of a recently completed set of ramps and stairs at the Laguna Niguel/ Mission Viejo Metrolink station. This allows safe travel under the east and west tracks. These ramps and stairs replaced an outdoor elevator which is no longer in use. Photo by Noel T. Braymer

Dreams of a train tunnel slip away
Palo Alto Online-Feb 21, 2018
For nearly a decade, Palo Alto’s elected leaders and residents have advocated for construction of underground rail tracks to accommodate California’s high-speed rail system and Caltrain, which is planning to add more trains as part of its electrification project.
But with a new study highlighting the high costs and steep engineering challenges of the project, city officials are preparing to pull the plug on the idea and to consider less ambitious and less costly methods for separating the train tracks from the city’s roadways.

‘Did You Know?’ Fun Caltrain Facts For Every RiderPatch.com-Feb 20, 2018
From samTrans: Did you know that more people ride Caltrain daily than live in Greenland? Did you know that Abraham Lincoln was President when the railroad began carrying riders 150 years ago?
Interesting facts like these are all part of Caltrain’s new “Did You Know?” public education campaign, which kicked off Sunday, Feb. 19.

Caltrain launches grade crossing improvement projects
Progressive Rail Roading-Feb 20, 2018
Caltrain last week began construction to improve three grade crossings in Redwood City, California.
Crews are installing new pedestrian gate arms, as well as new guard rails and signage to channel pedestrians toward crosswalks. Workers also will install roadway markers and bumps along the crosswalk so vehicles don’t accidentally turn onto the tracks, Caltrain officials said in a press release.

Caltrain has a list of demands before it will change pole design for Atherton
The Almanac Online-Feb 23, 2018
In the latest volley in the battle between Atherton and Caltrain over the height of the poles it plans to install as part of its project to electrify its trains, Caltrain has given the town until Feb. 28 to meet a list of demands if it wants shorter poles installed.
A Feb. 6 letter from Caltrain demands that Atherton pay it $200,000, get written consent of property owners whose trees will be affected by changed plans, and agree the town won’t support or be a part of any lawsuit filed against the electrification project. In return, Caltrain would install 10 35-foot-tall poles with crossbeams spanning only one set of tracks, instead of the five 45-foot-tall poles that cantilever over two sets of tracks it had planned.

BART Says No to Station at Proposed Site for A’s New Ballpark
NBC Bay Area-Feb 19, 2018
It looks like another swing and a miss for the Oakland A’s in their quest for a new ballpark near downtown.
BART has said it cannot build a station at the Howard Terminal site the A’s have eyed for their new stadium. BART officials said a station at the site, just north of Jack London Square, would be too disruptive to its service and would take too long to design and build.

CA: BART Gets Serious About a 2nd East Bay-SF Transbay TubeMassTransitMag.com-Feb 22, 2018
Feb. 21–A new BART tunnel beneath the bay might begin in Alameda and emerge in Mission Bay. It could parallel the existing tube but then head up Mission Street on the west side of the bay instead of up Market. Or maybe it would stretch between Alameda and AT&T Park.
No one knows, but after years of supposition and pie-in-the-sky conjecture from planners and passengers alike, BART officials are starting to study a second Transbay Tube.

Violent attacks on BART employees rising
SFGate-Feb 21, 2018
Over the last year BART employees have been kicked, punched, shoved, spat upon and pelted with rocks while on the job.
More than 40 incidents of battery targeted at the public transit agency’s staff were reported in 2017, according to crime data obtained by SFGATE. The number of assaults has increased steadily year-over-year since 2013, with the figure nearly doubling between 2015 and 2016, and that’s just the reported incidents.
According to a recent KTVU investigation, the “actual numbers of assaults are significantly higher.” Train operators said a “significant, yet unknown, number of cases go unreported.”

Screen Doors Coming to Oakland BART Station
Streetsblog San Francisco -Feb 20, 2018
As part of Measure RR and its $3.5 billion investments in expanding capacity, BART is planning to test out platform “screen doors” at the 12th Street BART Station. Screen doors, as seen in the photo above of the Paris Metro, are a set of safety doors, placed along the edge of the platform, intended to prevent transit riders from getting onto the tracks. BART is allotting $3 million of Measure RR money to this pilot.
“We’re in the early stages of our platform edge door project,” Chris Filippi, a spokesman for BART, explained in an email to Streetsblog. “This is an ambitious project for BART, as no transit system in North America has platform edge doors despite having similar crowding challenges as those faced by BART.”

Swarm of 16 earthquakes shakes Danville and Diablo, slows BART trains
SFGate-Feb 23, 2018
When BART receives reports of earthquakes, it stops trains until it can get information from the Geological Survey. If the magnitude is lower than 3.0, trains can start running under automatic controls. If it’s higher than 3.0, operators run trains at low speeds, under manual control, for about five minutes while conducting visual track inspections.
A 2.8 earthquake at 12:21 p.m. caused BART to halt trains briefly, transit officials said. A 5:53 a.m. quake also led to a 10-minute delay that affected the morning commute.

Palo Alto: City officials oppose bill that allows tall, dense housing
The Mercury News-Feb 23, 2018
Palo Alto officials say a pending state bill would strip their control of land uses in the city and possibly result in exceptionally tall housing developments along high-transit areas.State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, last month introduced State Bill 827, which aims to boost housing density in and near transit corridors. If passed in its current form, the bill would allow buildings that include housing units to be as tall as 85 feet within a quarter-mile of busy transit corridors where buses stop at least every 15 minutes during peak commute hours, or within one block of a major transit stop, such as Palo Alto’s two Caltrain stations.

A sweeping new bill targets California’s housing crisis
Vox-Feb 23, 2018
California is in the midst of crippling housing crisis. The state’s population has steadily grown, but it hasn’t been building new places for people to live at anything close to the same rate. It now ranks 49th in housing units per capita.The predictable consequence of demand growing faster than supply is that existing housing in the state, especially in its biggest cities, has become insanely expensive. Seven of the 10 most expensive US real estate markets are Californian. The median home price in the state is $524,000; in San Francisco it is approaching $1.3 million.Rising prices push middle-class workers further and further from their jobs, leading to unhealthy commutes and traffic congestion. Low-income Californians are increasingly forced to choose between rent and food or health care, adding to the state’s hunger and health problems, or being pushed out of housing altogether, adding to its burgeoning homeless population. According to analysts at McKinsey, the housing crisis is costing California $140 billion a year in lost economic output…A tangle of land-use restrictions makes it difficult to build homes in California
But those legislative reforms are fighting against an artificially constrained market. The basic problem remains: It is difficult to build housing in California, thanks in part to a thicket of local parking regulations, building requirements, zoning restrictions, and bureaucratic choke points. The state’s (generally whiter, wealthier) residents use these tools to prevent new construction that might house (generally more diverse, poorer) newcomers.

Germany considers to fight pollution with free public transportation
Washington Post Feb 14, 2018Germany’s latest, and more radical, plans are similarly supposed to solve the lingering problem of air pollution in German cities, which recently prompted the threat of major E.U. fines.
More than 130 cities in Europe are affected by “life-threatening” air pollution, according to the European Commission, that is believed to be responsible for about 400,000 deaths each year in the European Union. And even though Germany is far from being Europe’s most polluted nation, the topic is taken more seriously here than in most other places that have repeatedly breached E.U. limits on nitrogen dioxide and fine particles.

New Rail Transit Being Built In The Next Ten Years In Los Angeles
By Noel T. Braymer
Los Angeles County under the management of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, also known as LA Metro, has an ambitious and multi billion dollar plan to expand rail transit service in the county. As each new link is finished and connects to the rest of the transit system more people will be able to get around the county without dealing with jammed freeways or hunting for parking. There are 8 major rail projects LA Metro is planning to open between now and 2028.

Renderings Galore for the LAX Automated People Mover
Urbanize. LA Feb 16, 2018
With construction expected to begin this year, Los Angeles World Airports has unveiled new renderings and an animated video that preview the LAX Automated People Mover.
The APM, a monorail-like system, will operate along a 2.25-mile elevated guideway with six stops between the LAX Consolidated Rental Car Facility and the Central Terminal Area.
Utility relocation and surveying for the APM are expected to begin in the second quarter of 2018, with construction of the guideway set to start as early as 2019.

Blue Line in Long Beach to close for a total of eight months next year to undergo $300 million renovation
Press-Telegram Feb 21, 2018
Metro is preparing to close the 22-mile Blue Line for a total of eight months next year to complete the modernization of the transit agency’s oldest train line.
Opened in 1990 and showing its age, the Blue Line will be receiving $300 million in improvements during the closure period.
The agency plans to add four new switches that allow trains to move quicker, new signals, new tracks in downtown Long Beach and improvements at street level intersections, especially at the Washington Boulevard and Flower Street junction near downtown Los Angeles where cars have crashed into trains, causing significant delays.Metro planners are working with the city of Long Beach and the Los Angeles Department of Transportation for better signal synchronization at sections where the trains stop for traffic at red lights, Ted Lindholm, executive officer of capital projects for Metro, said Tuesday.

Why the Expo Line is slow—and why it might not be that way forever
Curbed LA Feb 20, 2018
An upcoming change to state environmental rules might make it possible to speed up the frustratingly slow Expo Line.
The change could set the stage for the city to give trains the right of way at some intersections—instead of cars.
Giving cars the right of way has been one of the biggest challenges to making the light rail, which runsfrom Downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica, faster. Instead of flying over or tunneling under intersections, especially between Western Avenue and Downtown, the train stops and waits for traffic to pass in front of it.

Rolland Curtis Gardens Development Rises Near Expo/Vermont Station
Urbanize. LA Feb 20, 2018
The project, which is being built next to Metro’s Expo/Vermont Station by nonprofit developer Abode Communities, will feature interconnected one-to-five-story buildings featuring 140 apartments, 8,000 square feet of commercial space, and a landscaped courtyard area. Plans also call for a 114-car garage within the new development.
Per the California State Treasurer’s office, the new apartments will come in one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans, with rents ranging between $466 and $1,354 per month. The units will be targeted to households making between 30 and 60 percent of the Los Angeles area median income.

Mixed-Use Project Near Pasadena Gold Line Station Moves Forward
Urbanize.LA Feb 22, 2018
Trammell Crow Company continues to move forward with plans for a mixed-use development near the Gold Line’s Sierra Madre Villa Station in Pasadena.
The project, slated for an approximately 8.32-acre property at 3200 E. Foothill Boulevard, would replace a self-storage facility with eight mixed-use buildings featuring 550 apartment units, 9,800 square feet of retail space and parking for up to 782 vehicles. The mix of studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom dwellings would include 481 market rate units, as well as 23 units priced for moderate-income families and 46 units for low-income families.

Southern California’s transit ridership will get rolling: Larry Wilson
The Pasadena Star-News-Feb 24, 2018
Everyone’s a little bit wrong here. And the argument is a bit of an academic one, filled with classic posturing. In Los Angeles County especially, what with the creation of the massive cash cow that is the Measure M 1 percent forever sales tax to fund Metro, rail and bus line building isn’t going away. It’s going to entirely change the transportation infrastructure of the populous core of our region over the next 30 years. If the sprawlers are right and no one really wants to get out of their cars — and these same folks are the ones who say Southern Californians don’t want to live in multi-family buildings near transit-friendly development, so that what we really need is more exurban sprawl, with three-bedroom housing tracts filling in the wild gap from here to Joshua Tree — well, there’ll be some swell views of empty light-rail cars on lines from Sherman Oaks to Santa Monica from those new toll roads.

This was shot from the new Platform by Track 3 at Oceanside. The 2 tracks in this picture are used by the Sprinter DMU service to Escondido with a center platform between the 2 tracks. In the background is a station parking lot. Notice the pedestrian crossing on the track leading to the parking lot. This got me to thinking that if there was also a pedestrian crossing between Platform 3 to the Sprinter Platform, this would be a great shortcut for passengers walking to and from the parking lot. This would also relieve the congestion on Platform 3 which is common after a Coaster Train arrives in Oceanside. For now most Sprinter trains usually use the track with the pedestrian crossing nearest the parking lot. Photo by Noel T. Braymer

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Re: RailPac Newsletter
Noel – As usual, you have put together another very informative compilation of relevant passenger rail and transit articles! Your efforts are appreciated because you always find articles some of us in the rail industry miss so thank you again for your focus and dedication to this resolve! You and Paul really speak out and don’t hesitate to point out critical issues, or things that are simply wrong. Keep up the great work!
Richard Phelps

Opinions expressed in this enewsletter are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Rail Passenger Association of California.

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This story and map of Amtrak in 1979 looks like the good old days today. Long portrayed as the problem, the Long Distance trains are central to the health of Rail Passenger service. The Long Distance trains are the best generators of revenue for Amtrak. Cutting Long Distance trains doesn’t save money, it causes Amtrak’s revenues to go down with little impact on reducing its costs.

Trump budget plan for 2019 defunds Amtrak’s long-distance routes
CBS News-Feb 13, 2018
The White House budget, released Monday, proposes that “States begin to share the operating subsidy costs of Long Distance routes with the Federal Government.” It suggests cutting the federal subsidy for Amtrak in half, from $1.4 billion to $738 million. That would save the feds about $6.3 billion this decade, according to calculations from the Wharton School of Business.
The only problem? Many states, already strapped for cash, are unlikely to come up with the needed funding. State and local governments already account for 77 percent of public infrastructure spending in the U.S., according to the Economic Policy Institute. And more than half of states have faced budget shortfalls during the last two years, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Here We Go Again! Yet Another Attempt To Kill Amtrak’s Long Distance Trains
By Noel T. Braymer
It is hard to believe that the Trump Administration is following in the footsteps of the Carter Administration. In 1979, in an attempt to “save” money on Amtrak, the Carter Administration demanded that Amtrak eliminate the trains that were “losing” the most money. In the process of doing so, congressional offices got massive amounts of mail from their constituents opposing the elimination of trains in their districts. At times when there is talk of cutting Amtrak service, mail opposing this to congressional offices is often second only to letters about Social Security. After much noise, 5 trains were eliminated, 4 of which were Long Distance trains: the National Limited, Texas Eagle, Floridian and the tri-weekly North Coast Hiawatha. What was the end result of this? Amtrak losses went up, not down. Why was that? At the heart of this was the fact that the Long Distance trains didn’t cost as much to operate as Amtrak’s accounting claimed. The reason Amtrak’s losses increased was because by getting rid of these Long Distance trains, Amtrak lost the revenues these trains brought in while saving very little money by getting rid of them. This has been repeated every time Amtrak has cut back Long Distance service, no savings and higher not lower losses.

Amtrak CEO: How we are making Amtrak safer
The Hill-Feb 14, 2018
Recent high profile accidents have understandably shined a spotlight on Amtrak. Each reflect different situations and unique risks, and we should be careful not to rush to judgment or make broad assumptions about Amtrak’s safety culture.
As the company’s new CEO, I can assure our customers that Amtrak is safe and working every day to be even safer. However, Amtrak runs a complex rail system that relies heavily on support and cooperation from our partner railroads, particularly freight carriers. Additionally, Amtrak is in critical need of additional resources to address our aging infrastructure and fleet.

Amtrak: NJ TRANSIT Could Be Banned Between Trenton And NYC
CBS New York-Feb 16, 2018
Amtrak President and CEO Richard Anderson told a House subcommittee on Thursday Amtrak is worried passengers are being put at risk by delays in installing the technology that’s designed to prevent crashes.
“It is going to be very difficult for us to allow anybody to operate on the railroad we host without PTC,” Anderson said.
NJ TRANSIT is far behind on meeting the Dec. 31 federal government deadline to have PTC built and operational.

NCTD worried Amtrak could delay train safety system
The San Diego Union-Tribune-Feb 18, 2018
North County Transit District is on track to meet a federally mandated Dec. 31 deadline to install a high-tech safety system designed to control speeds and prevent deadly train crashes and derailments.
Amtrak, though, is not and that could throw a wrench into the NCTD system.
The new Positive Train Control system requires multiple rail systems to electronically mesh as one. Coaster, Amtrak, freight trains and other railway carriers must communicate seamlessly, a process that requires months of testing followed by federal certification.

Oklahoma Official Says Rail Used by Amtrak Is Compliant
U.S. News & World Report-Feb 17, 2018
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma transportation official says rail used by Amtrak for the Heartland Flyer that runs daily between Oklahoma City and Fort Worth, Texas, complies with a new speed control system.
Amtrak President and CEO Richard Anderson has said it’s possible service will be suspended on tracks that don’t have what’s known as Positive Train Control — or PTC.
Oklahoma Department of Transportation spokeswoman Kenna Mitchell told The Journal Record that ODOT has confirmed with Amtrak that the Heartland Flyer line is PTC-compliant.

Tunnel of no love? Amtrak officials sound alarm over NYC tunnel in desperate need of repairs
Fox News-Feb 12, 2018
It is, in fact, the nation’s busiest transit route connecting New York City to the southern half of the east coast, and Gordon says it’s falling apart because of age and the saltwater drenching it took during Hurricane Sandy five years ago.
Trump budget puts emphasis on defense, infrastructure
He says since, Amtrak has had seven major electrical outages inside the North River Tunnel because of corroding wiring.
“That means we have reduction in the capacity of the voltage,” he explains. “We gotta stop trains, and it reduces capacity to the trains that we can run.”

FTA lowers grant ratings for Amtrak tunnel, bridge projects
Progressive Rail Roading-Feb 15, 2018
The Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) downgrading this week of two critical “Gateway” projects in the Northeast Corridor will further jeopardize the projects from receiving federal funding, supporters of the passenger-rail corridor said yesterday.In its annual funding recommendations report to Congress on the Capital Investment Grants (CIG) program, the FTA this week rated both the Hudson Tunnel and the Portal North Bridge replacement projects as “medium-low” in priority for federal grants. Medium-low is second-lowest rating on a five-point scale that helps determine whether federal funding is warranted.

As one fortunate to experience our great passenger trains throughout the 1950s and 1960s, it is with much regret I hesitantly approach this topic. To best explain what is happening once again to threaten the American passenger train, I rely on the famous malapropisms by the great Yogi Berra* to emphasize how Amtrak’s Board of Directors and Executive Management has caused its degeneration to the extent that it is well beyond controlling its own destiny.

Shooting outside Emeryville Amtrak station leaves man critically injured
SFGate-Feb 12, 2018
A 26-year-old man was critically injured Sunday night in a shooting outside the Amtrak station in Emeryville, authorities said.
The shooting occurred about 9:11 p.m. near the intersection of 59th and Horton streets, said Capt. Oliver Collins of the Emeryville Police Department.

No cause yet for freight train derailment in Hughson. Amtrak service changes
Modesto Bee Feb 11, 2018
Authorities on Sunday had not determined what derailed a freight train late Saturday in Hughson, leaving behind a pile of wrecked boxcars and creating problems for drivers and Amtrak passengers through the next few days….
That will cause problems for Amtrak passenger trains that use the same railway. On Sunday, Amtrak officials issued a service alert for its passengers traveling through the San Joaquin Valley.
Amtrak San Joaquin trains will not be able to operate between Merced and Stockton. Substitute transportation using chartered buses will move Amtrak passengers between Merced and Stockton.

Amtrak Train To Michigan Unexpectedly Stops Twice, Leaves Passengers Sick
CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Feb 13, 2018
Amtrak passengers making their way to Michigan from Chicago’s Union Station complained Monday night of feeling sick when the train unexpectedly stopped twice along the way.
Eastbound Wolverines #352 had weather-related problems near Michigan City and again near Niles, Michigan. Mimi Brun said she thought she might pass out, when the heat went out and the restrooms went out of order.

JetSuiteX Offers Pop-up Flights to Coachella Music Festival
AirlineGeeks.com-Feb 17, 2018
Currently there are not that many convenient transportation options from Los Angeles to Coachella Valley other than Greyhound and Amtrak. Amtrak was intent on offering a day-time “Coachella Train” with a temporary station in Indio, CA for the popular festival last year, but it never materialized. Amtrak serves Palm Springs, 32 minutes away from the festival grounds, however the service arrives pastmidnight.

Disneyland Resort teams up with Amtrak to offer discounts on train
OCRegister-Feb 14, 2018
Amtrak and Disneyland Resort are partnering for a limited promotion that offers discounted rail travel and park admission for Southern California residents.
Through May 21, each child age 2-12 can board an Amtrak Pacific Surfliner train traveling to the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center for free with the purchase of an adult ticket. The ART Route 15 connector bus will shuttle Amtrak passengers from the ARTIC to the theme park for free.

This is one of the buses connecting Disneyland to the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center (ARTIC). These buses are operated by Anaheim Resort Transit (ART) which run a dense level of bus service centered around Disneyland connecting to the hotels and other places of interest for visitors to Orange County. Photo by Noel T. Braymer.

Opinion: Why California should continue building high-speed rail
The Mercury News- Feb 14, 2018
The high-speed rail vision is of Bay Area grandparents on family visits to Disneyland. The system would fail based only on those relatively infrequent end-to-end trips.
The reason for building high-speed rail is to protect our Bay Area economy. Per Caltrans, 133,000 daily vehicle trips were averaged during 2016 peak months on Interstate 580 at Highway 205 headed into Silicon Valley. Highway 152 averaged 47,000 daily vehicles during peak months. Many fearsome 18-wheel trucks joined the vastly overcapacity daily migration connecting the Central Valley’s affordable housing to Silicon Valley’s irresistible job market. That trip (2-4 hours each direction) is dangerous, time consuming and emotionally debilitating. Burning $3-4 per gallon gasoline (more in the future) also depletes a family’s fiscal well-being and adds dramatically to climate change.

Worth Noting: Wasco hosting high-speed rail meeting
The Bakersfield Californian-Feb 14, 2018
The California High Speed Rail Authority will hold a meeting in Wasco on March 1 to provide an update on the project.
The meeting will be held from 5-7 p.m. at the Wasco Veterans Hall, 1202 Poplar Ave. Officials involved in the project will discuss high-speed rail developments in the Wasco area and other parts of Kern County, such as design completion, right-of-way acquisition and employment opportunities.

One Person’s Boondoggle Is Another’s Infrastructure Investment
By Noel T. Braymer
With large, expensive construction projects often comes critics calling these projects “boondoggles”. According to the book “Since Yesterday” by Fredrick Lewis Allen published in 1940 about the 1930’s; the term “boondoggle” came into common use by the critic’s of President Roosevelt’s construction projects during the Great Depression. Many of these “boondoggles” were for improved infrastructure. It is true that most large scale construction projects are very expensive and often go way over budget. The non-military project which cost the most in history and had the highest cost overruns was the railroad tunnel often called the Chunnel built under the Straits of Dover connecting Britain to France and the rest of Europe.Many would think the cost overruns for the Chunnel was typical poor government management. The only problem with that is the Chunnel was privately built and financed. This came at the insistence of then Conservative British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who came to power in 1979.

China is building a £1.2 billion high-speed railway across the ‘Bermuda Triangle of Asia’
Daily Mail-Feb 12, 2018
Chinese workers are constructing an impressive railroad bridge in an area that has been considered a ‘no-go zone’ for bridge builders.
The £1.2 billion Pingtan Strait Railroad Bridge spans across the extremely rough sea off the coast of south-east China, a region that has apparently seen the mysterious disappearances of many jets and boats and is dubbed the ‘Bermuda Triangle of Asia’.
Chinese engineers, who started on the project in 2013, are confident that they could complete the colossal traffic link next year. And not only that, they have planned to run high-speed trains above the notoriously choppy waters.

Indian Railways To Announce 10000 km Of High-Speed Rail Corridors
Swarajya-Feb 13, 2018
The Ministry of Railways is planning to announce 10,000 kilometres of new high-speed corridors in April 2018 for trains to run at speed of 200-250 kilometres per hour, the Times of India has reported.
According to the report, Minister Piyush Goyal has asked officials to identify the corridors and work on cutting the cost of construction by less than half. To bring the cost down, the ministry is considering options such as building single pillar, two track corridors on the top of highways or building them on existing railway land.

Can This European High-Speed Train Compete With Airlines?
CityLab-Feb 12, 2018
How long can a train journey be to still compete with air travel?
This is a question surfacing in Europe this month, as the first-ever direct London-to-Amsterdam train service gets ready to launch. With tickets going on sale next Monday, two daily trains run by the high-speed Eurostar will start serving the route on April 4. Currently, a Londoner bound for Amsterdam by train can expect the journey to take a little under five hours, with a change of trains in Brussels. The new service will reach speeds of up to 186 miles per hour and cancel the need to change in Brussels, shaving off over an hour.

European builders to jointly bid for KL-Singapore high-speed rail
Nikkei Asian Review- Feb 13, 2018
KUALA LUMPUR — Four European industrial heavyweights, including Siemens and Alstom, have formed a consortium with Malaysian engineering company George Kent to bid for the 350km high-speed rail line connecting Kuala Lumpur with Singapore. The group, which is the first to register its intention for Southeast Asia’s first cross-border HSR project, will likely face rival bidders from China and Japan.

Government endorses construction of high-speed rail link with Boryspil airport
Ukrinform. Ukraine and world news-Feb 16, 2018
he Cabinet of Ministers supports a decision to construct a high-speed railway connection with the Boryspil International Airport.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman informed this on Twitter.
“The Government has endorsed the construction of a high-speed railway connection with the Boryspil airport. There is a real engineering decision that can be realized by the end of the year,” Groysman said.

Collenette to chair Ontario high-speed rail board
International Railway Journal- Feb 14, 2018
THE Province of Ontario has appointed former Canadian federal transport minister Mr David Collenette as chair of the Ontario High Speed Rail Planning Advisory board, which will oversee the development of plans for a high-speed line linking Toronto with Windsor.

Arlington voices support for high-speed rail but won’t join a transportation authority – yet
Fort Worth Star Telegram-Feb 13, 2018
With mounting pressure to commit to a high-speed rail line between Dallas and Fort Worth, city officials said they are exploring forming a local government corporation with the other cities along the proposed route.
Mayor Jeff Williams said the city is committed to high-speed rail, but he stopped short of agreeing to join a local transportation authority such as Dallas Area Rapid Transit or the Fort Worth Transportation Authority.
The local government corporation would include Fort Worth, Dallas, Grand Prairie and Arlington.

A New Advocacy Group is Pushing for a High-Speed Rail Line
Willamette Week-Feb 12, 2018
A new advocacy group launched today to push for the creation of a high-speed railway connecting Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, Spokane and Vancouver, B.C.
The Pacific Northwest could use relief from interstate gridlock: Traffic on I-5 is brutal at almost any hour. The 170-mile trek between Portland and Seattle can take upwards of five hours, on a good day.
Cascadia Rail hopes to change that.
“Because our entire region is popular and globally competitive,” Cascadia Rail wrote in a Seattle Transit Blog post, “more is needed to support the growing population across the Cascadia region.” That population increase could be close to 10 million over the next 20 years, the group says.

Trump’s Infrastructure Plan Is Just Another Con
Streetsblog USA Feb 12, 2018
The Trump proposal doesn’t even include new funding. It calls for $200 billion in federal spending on infrastructure over ten years, but that would come from cuts to other programs, according to a White House official cited by Time.
The administration plans to siphon resources from federal transit programs, which Trump singled out for cuts in his 2019 budget proposal, also released today. The budget calls for axing $3.7 billion for New Starts, the major source of federal funding for transit expansion projects.All told, the Trump budget proposal would “cut more than $168 billion of Federal highway, transit, Amtrak, and water infrastructure funding over the next 10 years,” according to Representative Peter DeFazio, an Oregon Democrat and the ranking member of the House infrastructure committee.

The Bus Not Taken: How Easy Auto Loans Reinforced Car Dependence and Killed Transit Ridership
Streetsblog San Francisco Feb 15, 2018
Why has car ownership been increasing so quickly? There are many reasons, but the UCLA study mentions one that has often escaped attention: the torrent of cheap and easy credit that has washed over car showrooms and used car lots in the years since the end of the Great Recession.
It can be hard to remember now, but in the immediate wake of the Great Recession, the nation took several steps to get people back into showrooms again – steps that in the clarity of hindsight wound up reinforcing our dependence on cars. The 2009 Cash for Clunkers program incentivized customers to trade in their old cars in the hope that they would buy new ones. The Federal Reserve lowered interest rates to bargain-basement levels and through the magic of quantitative easing flooded the economy with money.

Seattle Cut Car Commuting Downtown While Adding 60,000 Jobs
Streetsblog USA Feb 15, 2018
From 2010 to 2017, downtown Seattle added 60,000 jobs. Over the same time period, the number of solo car commuters into the city’s central business district dropped by 4,500, or 9 percent, according to a new report from Commute Seattle.
The city was able to absorb the employment boom without setting off a traffic explosion thanks mainly to a dramatic increase in transit ridership.

California’s Transportation Emissions Drop While Its Economy, Population Grow
NGT News Feb 14, 2018
Greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions continue to drop in California even as the state grows its economy and population. Further declines in GHG emissions are expected to come from the state’s transportation sector, according to the California Energy Commission (CEC).
In its latest tracking progress report on greenhouse gases, the CEC shows that the transportation sector directly accounts for 38% of GHG emissions in California.

San Diego County Needs to Get Serious About Climate Change
Voice of San Diego Feb 13, 2018
The Board of Supervisors will consider a climate action plan on Wednesday that ignores some of the most significant causes of greenhouse gas emissions in our region. More than a housing or a traffic crisis, San Diego County has a leadership crisis…California law requires every city and county to develop a climate action plan, or CAP. These plans are supposed to map out specific steps that allow local governments to meet statewide greenhouse gas reduction targets. But in San Diego County, officials act like our region can escape the worst of climate change without doing our part.
In 2014, car travel accounted for 45 percent of greenhouse gas emissions generated in San Diego County. It is therefore completely mystifying that the county’s CAP simply ignores the issues of land use planning and transportation.

L.A. Metro Board to Vote on $6 Billion 710 Freeway Widening
Streetsblog LA Feb 13, 2018
This week Metro board committees are considering approving a distinctly backward-looking $6 billion project to widen the 710 Freeway through southeast L.A. County. It is difficult to believe that, in the 21st Century, Caltrans and Metro are still seeking to spend billions widening a highway in order “to improve air quality, mobility, and quality of life” per the Metro project website. East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice Executive Director mark! Lopez criticizes the 710 Freeway project because it “does little to advance zero emissions, does little to ensure local labor is hired to build this enormous project, and will displace hundreds of longstanding families from their homes.”More roads create more congestion, they don’t make traffic smoother. Case in point the carpool lanes built in the Sepulveda Pass on the 405 freeway. Just as congested now as before the new lanes were built. NB

German Greyhound rival prepares launch in California
Handelsblatt Feb 14, 2018
After sewing up its home German market within five years of its launch, Flixbus now aims to expand in the US, challenging Greyhound Lines, the national bus service launched in 1914 that services more than 18 million customers each year in North America.
Flixbus’ founders and executives told Handelsblatt the company would initially offer bus service between Los Angeles as its main hub and Las Vegas, San Francisco and the Bay Area.Will their bus stations be connected to rail services? NB

Caltrain delays caused by systemwide electrical issues
SFGate-Feb 14, 2018
Caltrain commuters can expect delays Wednesday morning as systemwide electrical issues have halted at least six trains, officials said.
The delays started around 8:15 a.m., said Tasha Bartholomew, a spokeswoman for the transit agency. It was not clear what caused the glitch.
BART, SamTrans and VTA are helping transport passengers, she said.
At least six trains — four southbound and two northbound — are being held as officials address the issue.

moovel Partners with Caltrain to Launch Mobile Ticketing Platform
PR Newswire-Feb 13, 2018
PORTLAND, Ore., Feb. 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — moovel North America, the leading provider of public transit mobile ticketing and fare validation solutions, today announced the launch of Caltrain Mobile, a mobile application designed to provide a more convenient and accessible ticketing solution for Caltrain, the commuter rail service along the San Francisco Peninsula and Santa Clara Valley. Powered by moovel, Caltrain Mobile gives Caltrain’s estimated 65,000 daily weekday riders an opportunity to easily purchase, store and access fares directly on their smartphones.

ACEC California Names Santa Clara Caltrain Pedestrian Underpass as 2018 Golden State Award Winner
Digital Journal Feb 9, 2018
SACRAMENTO, Calif.–(Business Wire)–ACEC California named the Pedestrian Underpass Extension at the Santa Clara Caltrain Station as its 2018 Golden State Award Winner for its innovative design features that significantly expanded pedestrian and cyclist access. Biggs Cardosa Associates, Inc. served as the prime consultant and structural engineer to the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority project. The Golden State Award is the highest honor ACEC California bestows as part of its Engineering Excellence Awards program.

Safety improvements slated for three Redwood City rail crossings
San Mateo Daily Journal-Feb 17, 2018
Construction work to improve safety at three Caltrain grade crossings at Whipple Avenue, Main Street and Broadway in Redwood City began this week, according to the transit agency.
Crews are installing new pedestrian gate arms, new “KEEP CLEAR” markings to prevent vehicles from stopping on tracks, new guard rails and signs to channel pedestrians toward crosswalks. In addition, new road markers and bumps along the crosswalk will be installed so vehicles do not accidentally make a turn onto the tracks, according to Caltrain.

Hot-air balloon narrowly misses SMART depot
Marin Journal Feb 11, 2018
A hot-air balloon was forced to make a sudden landing Sunday morning near the Sonoma County Airport SMART train station in Santa Rosa, coming down safely in the parking lot of the county’s Animal Services shelter.
The balloon, carrying a basket of about a dozen people, flew low just to the north of the train station at about 10:10 a.m., said witness Sherrill Dunning-Riley, a SMART station representative.

BART Hiring Additional Janitors To Clean Most Crowded Stations
CBS San Francisco Bay Area-Feb 14, 2018
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) – Bay Area Rapid Transit stations in San Francisco and Oakland should be getting a lot cleaner.
Four months after Supervisor Hillary Ronen personally started cleaning the 16th Street Mission station, BART said it will hire more than 20 janitors.

New BART Riders Ask for Upgraded Parking Machines to Help Ease Commuter Confusion
NBC Bay Area-Feb 14, 2018
Several new BART riders tell NBC Bay Area they think the system’s old parking machine technology needs an upgrade. The riders say the machines let them pay for parking spots that turned out to not be valid, and they ended up with citations.
Each of the incidents took place at the Rockridge BART station in Oakland.

Metro Considers New Alignments for the West Santa Ana Branch
Urbanize LA Feb 12, 2018
In the project’s 2015 Technical Refinement Study, Metro unveiled an array of potential alignments for the northern branch of the approximately 20-mile light rail line along Alameda Street and Santa Fe Avenue, all of which would have terminated at Los Angeles Union Station. Based on a staff report, Metro seems to have settled on a shared right-of-way with the existing Blue Line in WSAB’s approach to Downtown, but its end destination may not wind up being Union Station.This project is now planned to be finished in time for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. NB

10-day street closure on Wilshire at Western for Purple Line Extension work
The Source Feb 13, 2018
Metro is working to connect the Purple Line Extension to the existing Purple Line at Wilshire/Western Station.
To expedite decking and to support construction activities in this very dense and heavily utilized area of Koreatown, there will be a 10-day street closure of Wilshire Boulevard between Manhattan Place and Western Avenue from Feb. 16 to 26.

Battling Governor Brown for Commuter Rail
Santa Barbara Independent-Feb 16, 2018
As the promise of commuter rail closes in on the anticipated start-up date of April 2 — if all goes well — Santa Barbara has hosted several meetings to finalize “last mile” destination and subsidy arrangements. Up in her Sacramento state senator’s office, Hannah-Beth Jackson is enjoying some long-awaited rays of cheer…
She credited Brian Kelly of Caltrans, who ironically has just moved over to run the high-speed rail project, with getting a commitment from Amtrak to change one of its Pacific Surfliner slots to an earlier commuter-friendly time. They found a set of train cars in Michigan that was clean and relatively new, carried wifi, and had a good café car; new cars are on a long waitlist. They located an overnight spot for that train — harder than it sounds. Union Pacific (UP), whose West Coast leadership had changed, was “surprisingly cooperative,” Jackson said, as they worked out a way the early timing would not interfere with UP’s freight traffic.

California regulators say debt-ridden North Coast rail agency needs clearer plans
North Bay Business Journal-Feb 14, 2018
For the second time in two months, a state transportation board has faulted the public agency that oversees North Coast freight rail service for failing to present a detailed account of its finances or plans for future operations.
Members and staff of the California Transportation Commission ripped a plan drafted by the North Coast Railroad Authority for failing to include enough material to make “informed decisions” on the debt-ridden 28-year-old local agency’s future.

Eyes on the Street: New Metro Blue/Expo Line Train Gate
Streetsblog LA Feb 16, 2018
Metro is working to make the Blue Line faster and more reliable. One improvement already on the ground is a new crossing gate, which prevents cars from crashing into trains when illegally turning left from Flower Street onto the eastbound 10 Freeway.

Here is a major problem on Flower Street in downtown Los Angeles where the Blue and Expo Lines run next to one way road traffic. This is next to the eastbound 10 Freeway onramp at 18th St. which many drivers make illegal left hand turns to at Flower St. This causes many delays for the Light Rail services as well as accidents between road and rail vehicles. As part of the program to reduce running times and make Light Rail service more reliable, a gate has been installed at this left hand turn lane to the freeway onramp. This will block vehicles from turning left when the signal is red . Photo by Noel T. Braymer

We Get Emails

Re: Richard Phelps on Facebook
We need a National Railroad Passenger Corporation that is fully funded and provides a National Network! Amtrak serves many communities who have lost both interstate air and bus service. The reality is that the senior citizen population and the ADA population usually prefer to take trains because they are comfortable and ADA compliant. The train also represents a great way for college students and the military to travel at reasonable price. Killing our National Network/Long-Distance trains will eventually kill Amtrak as these trains feed the State supported corridors and provide a national system that offers the flexibility that our citizens want. Give Amtrak the funding it needs to operate a route system that is relevant, purchase new equipment to replace its aging fleet of cars and locomotives, and to have stations and maintenance facilities that are modern and functional. If Amtrak fails after that then hold it accountable.

Amtrak has never received the funding from Congress it needs to be viable since its inception. It is a credit to the employees and managers that Amtrak has survived this long on starvation funding. When it comes to high speed passenger rail, conventional rail, and commuter and light rail, the US is worse than some third world countries! Wake up Congress, don’t give Amtrak a bare bones budget and then complain about the service! You can do better and so can Amtrak!
Richard PhelpsRichard Phelps is a retired Amtrak Vice President and considered by many as one of the most qualified managers to have worked at Amtrak.NB

Re:Van Nuys rebuilding of the Van Nuys Platforms underway
The long awaited rebuilding of the Van Nuys Platforms is now underway.
Track 1 and the UP yard lead will be relocated in order to provide a proper platform, in place of the narrow emergency platform now on track 1.
Next step will be to get double track on to Chatsworth, once the home owners allow !
Ed Van Nordeck

Re: Metrolink Service to Dodger Stadium ad more
I think its great that Metrolink would consider dedicated trains for Dodger stadium but what else is needed is service to and from the South Bay. I ride the Metrolink Orange Line to Angel and Dodger games from south Orange County and the bliss of not driving makes this pastime all the better. However, traveling to games from the South Bay is not practical on public transportation. The best scenario is taking the Green Line from north Redondo Beach, transferring at Willowbrook to the Blue Line, transfer again to the Red Line and finally to the Dodger Stadium bus. Its time to rethink the Harbor Extension for use by Metrolink to provide much needed service from the South Bay which is really a public transportation Island, with limited connections to the mainland.
Richard BentIf you are talking about the old ATSF Harbor Line in Los Angeles you are at least about 10 years too late. Construction of the Crenshaw/LAX Line has taken over the old ATSF right of way between Imperial Highway and downtown Inglewood. The people along Slauson refuse to allow trains to return along Slauson Ave and demanded and are getting a bike path on the old ATSF Harbor Line. By 2021 you should be able to catch the Crenshaw Line if plans to extend it on the Green Line south of Imperial Highway go though in the South Bay. At Exposition Blvd you can transfer to the Expo Line to Little Tokyo. At Little Tokyo in the new Regional Connector subway station you should be able to wait a few minutes on the platform you stepped off of from the Expo Line and catch the next Blue Line train from Long Beach to Union Station and Azusa. NB

Re: S.C. Amtrak crash
Block signalling out of service in the crash area? Especially where switches are involved I would expect the restricted speed rule would apply.. basically proceed thru the area at [depending on the RR 10-20 MPH] restricted speed prepared to stop within half the range of vision for [various items but in this case..] switch improperly lined. IF this applied and I’d expect it would, why was the crash so severe? Or didn’t they have such an order out?? Curious..maximum track speed and train speed permitted?
Ed Davis Sr, Boise IdahoFrom what I understand from what I’ve been told: according to the CSX rulebook once given the okay to proceed by the dispatcher the train can proceed at the normal speed (which was 59 miles per hour on this block). There is the question that has been brought up that the engineer should be able to stop in time if they see a misaligned switch. I can’t answer that question and I’ll leave that up to the National Transportation Safety Board. NB

Re: What does “suss out” mean?
Michael SnyderI assume this is about the link to the article in last week’s enewsletter”BART Managers Suss Out Long Term Plans at Annual Workshop Streetsblog San Francisco Feb 9, 2018. Here is the definition of “suss out” from Wiktionary(slang, transitive) To come to understand (a person). We’ve sussed him out — he only drinks on Fridays and only in that bar in town. (slang, transitive) To manage to work (something) out, to determine (something). quotations ? We’ve sussed out how to open the lock.Opinions expressed in this enewsletter are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Rail Passenger Association of California.

The RailPAC Mission: Passenger Rail advocacy, Publications…both print and electronic, Representation at regional meetings, and Rail education.Join us! More memberships increase our strength in presenting the case for rail to policymakers at all levels!

From the RailPAC team, we present to you some of the best rail-related stories we’ve read over this past month.

In between editions on this space, you can also subscribe to our weekly emails sent out every Monday, featuring rail-related news articles from California and beyond. Subscribe to this free e-newsletter by sending your name and email address to Noel Braymer.

From the RailPAC team, we present to you some of the best rail-related stories we’ve read over this past month.

In between editions on this space, you can also subscribe to our weekly emails sent out every Monday, featuring rail-related news articles from California and beyond. Subscribe to this free e-newsletter by sending your name and email address to Noel Braymer.

From the RailPAC team, we present to you some of the best rail-related stories we’ve read over this past month.

In between editions on this space, you can also subscribe to our weekly emails sent out every Monday, featuring rail-related news articles from California and beyond. Subscribe to this free e-newsletter by sending your name and email address to Noel Braymer.

From the RailPAC team, we present to you some of the best rail-related stories we’ve read over this past month.

In between editions on this space, you can also subscribe to our weekly emails sent out every Monday, featuring rail-related news articles from California and beyond. Subscribe to this free e-newsletter by sending your name and email address to Noel Braymer.

From the RailPAC team, we present to you some of the best rail-related stories we’ve read over this past month.

In between editions on this space, you can also subscribe to our weekly emails sent out every Monday, featuring rail-related news articles from California and beyond. Subscribe to this free e-newsletter by sending your name and email address to Noel Braymer.

About Us

Our Mission is to promote the development of a modern, sustainable, environmentally friendly passenger rail system through education of the public and government officials.
Our Vision is a comprehensive rail network of long distance, intercity, and regional trains, supported by and integrated with local transit, bicycle access, and pedestrian friendly stations.
We accomplish these objectives via print publications, electronic media, testimony at government hearings, direct contact with elected and agency officials and conferences.